The Gun Show: Art of Peace exhibit in Oakland beautifully...

1of 9Artists Natasha McCray and Kevin Byall pick through pieces of disassembled guns outside of American Steel Studios in Oakland, Calif., Saturday April 7th, 2018. The Alameda County District Attorney's Office is partnering with the Robby Poblete Foundation to commission seven sculptures made from disassembled guns.Photo: Photos by Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle

3of 9The Alameda County district attorney’s office is partnering with the Robby Poblete Foundation to commission seven sculptures made from disassembled guns.Photo: Photos by Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle

4of 9Artists Darrell Hunger (left) and Brian Enright choose gun parts for their projects.Photo: Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle

5of 9Artist Tiffany Barr holds two live bullets while sifting through a bucket of casings at American Steel Studios in Oakland, Calif., Saturday April 7th, 2018. The Alameda County District Attorney's Office is partnering with the Robby Poblete Foundation to commission seven sculptures made from disassembled guns.Photo: Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle

6of 9Artists Kevin Byall, left, and Brain Enright pick through pieces of disassembled guns outside of American Steel Studios in Oakland, Calif., Saturday April 7th, 2018. The Alameda County District Attorney's Office is partnering with the Robby Poblete Foundation to commission seven sculptures made from disassembled guns.Photo: Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle

7of 9Artist Rebecca Anders, of Oakland, picks through pieces of disassembled guns outside of American Steel Studios in Oakland, Calif., Saturday April 7th, 2018. The Alameda County District Attorney's Office is partnering with the Robby Poblete Foundation to commission seven sculptures made from disassembled guns.Photo: Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle

8of 9Artists Brain Enright, left, Rebecca Anders, and Shaleem Ali pick through pieces of disassembled guns outside of American Steel Studios in Oakland, Calif., Saturday April 7th, 2018. The Alameda County District Attorney's Office is partnering with the Robby Poblete Foundation to commission seven sculptures made from disassembled guns.Photo: Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle

9of 9Buckets of disassembled guns are seen outside of American Steel Studios in Oakland, Calif., Saturday April 7th, 2018. The Alameda County District Attorney's Office is partnering with the Robby Poblete Foundation to commission seven sculptures made from disassembled guns.Photo: Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle

From barrels and bullets to magazines taken from guns used in murders and robberies, seven sculptures built from disassembled tools of violence will send a message of peace in Oakland.

In partnership with the Robby Poblete Foundation’s “Art of Peace” initiative, the Alameda County district attorney’s office commissioned the works of art in an effort to clear out the county’s overflowing evidence lockers. The guns used for the art exhibit, which opens to the public Tuesday, date to criminal cases from the 1970s.

Lt. Bruce Brock, of the district attorney’s office, had hundreds of weapons to dispose of and incineration is the standard method. But he was searching for a more meaningful, environmentally friendly means of disposal when he came across a local TV story about Pati Poblete’s foundation, which buys back guns and commissions artists to create works from the stripped down parts.

Four years ago, Poblete lost her son, Robby, to gun violence. As she channeled her grief into action, she thought of her son’s art and deep interest in reading about faith and transformation. Before he died, Robby Poblete, 23, was training to be a welder. But in his spare time, he picked up scraps of metal to create his own works of art.

“Everything I did, I felt it was something he would practice himself,” said Poblete, a former writer and editor at The Chronicle. “It’s the idea of transforming these metals, figuring out how to turn them into something beautiful.”

Poblete started the foundation in her son’s honor in February 2017. In addition to gun buybacks and art shows, the foundation also supports vocational training programs for students in Solano County.

The partnership with the district attorney’s office began when Brock reached out to Poblete, offering up the guns he had in storage for an Art of Peace show in Alameda County. The final works, scheduled to be on display for several weeks at a gallery space at 471B 9th St. in Oakland.

In April, outside a vibrantly painted warehouse in West Oakland, metallic clinks and dings filled the air as selected artists sorted through sawed-off rifle barrels and empty shell casings from guns used in cases that have since been adjudicated. The seven selected pitches explore themes of violence, human nature, growth and change.

Andrew Johnstone, chair of the county arts commission, was asked to shepherd the project, and he said the selection committee preferred concepts that embodied the project’s central idea of transformation.

“We didn’t want anything that was gory, or anything that looked like a toy,” Johnstone said. “Good art always has a narrative.”

From the stripped down metal parts, the artists built sculptures in shapes ranging from clasped hands or a swelling wave to a growing plant. Johnstone reminded the sculptors of their role in repurposing the former weapons as they tried to match the pieces to their sketches.

“Each thing you touch has a perverse history,” he said. “As artists, we’re lucky if we provoke people. Make something beautiful from something profoundly ugly.”

The artists all have local roots, and many said they were drawn to the project because the topic of gun violence resonated with them.

“It’s compelling to think about,” said Natasha McCray, who along with her husband, Shameel Ali, created a bicycle made almost entirely from the metal scraps they picked up in April. Their piece conveys the idea of moving forward.

Original pitches for the partnership were due March 16, shortly after the school shooting that left 17 people dead in Parkland, Fla.

“The timing was an influence, right after the school shooting,” said Kevin Byall, an Oakland artist and sculptor.

His piece, titled “Trouble Helix,” recreates the double helix structure of a strand of DNA with gun parts. He said he was interested in the idea of exploring whether violence was a part of the human genetic code.

The partnership with the Alameda County district attorney features the foundation’s second cohort of Bay Area artists. In August, Poblete organized a gun buyback in Solano County and selected artists to create works for a May 11 show.

She hopes her foundation’s message of peace and transformation will spread beyond the two scheduled art shows and has more gun buybacks scheduled, as well as more Art of Peace shows to follow.

Poblete spoke at an event last month in Atlanta commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, and there was overwhelming interest in expanding the program beyond the Bay Area, she said.

For years after Robby’s death, she avoided driving from her home in Fairfield to Vallejo, the city where he was killed. Going down the 17-mile stretch of road felt like driving into a tragedy, but that’s changed since she started her advocacy work, which regularly brings her into the city.

“I’m always in Vallejo now, driving there to help the community,” Poblete said. “Now, it’s not heading towards this tragedy but rather heading towards purpose.”

Annie Ma covers breaking news for the San Francisco Chronicle. Previously, she was an intern on the Oregonian’s data and watchdog team, with prior stops covering New York City public schools for Chalkbeat and local news at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She grew up in Florida and graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in political science and statistics.